How a personal tragedy led to a wellness brand that’s transforming lives through natural plant-based relief.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Vince Sanders, Founder and President of CBD American Shaman, about how a search to help a loved one with cancer sparked a nationwide CBD wellness brand. Vince shares his entrepreneurial journey, navigating regulation, educating communities, and creating effective plant-based products for both people and pets.
About CBD American Shaman
CBD American Shaman uses only the highest-quality cannabidiol ingredients available. These ingredients are 100% organic, natural, gluten-free, and non-genetically modified, which is why the CBD has the potential to treat a wide range of ailments. Customers are encouraged to call with questions about the products, store, hours, and more.
The store offers products that contain the Texas legal limit of 0.3% THC, as well as products with ZERO THC. Visitors can check out the store’s Facebook page, like and follow for a variety of informative videos. The website contains additional information, videos, Lab Reports on all products sold (Certificates of Analysis), and outlines that American Shaman conducts third-party testing.
Several products feature Nano-technology, making them 9 to 10 times more bioavailable and absorbable into the body than standard oils on the market. CBD American Shaman is US Hemp Authority Certified. The store offers free daily samples, product ordering directly to your door, and accepts phone orders of $100 or more with drop shipping options available. The website also provides full details on hours of operation and store location.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have Vince Sanders on the line and he is the founder, president, and of his company is CBD, American Shaman.
Vince, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Adam. Alright, so we got a lot to talk about today. I know that you’re helping people feel better through their bodies through pain management supplements like seven oh H and CBD. And so we’ll get into that and also the current state of your company and really how you scaled it.
But first, just to get us kicked off here, how did you get started in business? Like, where’d that start from you? So in business in general, I’ve, I’ve been self-employed basically my entire adult life. Hmm. I’ve, yeah, entrepreneurial people on both sides of my family, so I grew up seeing a lot of, you know, self-employed entrepreneurs and business owners.
So I, I, I learned a lot just, you know, by watching and listening. So I, I picked up a lot and, you know, I’ve always been pretty independent or, you know, just natural risk taker. Mm-hmm. So I’ve done a host of different things. As you know, most entrepreneurs, if they’re long term, have serial entrepreneurs, I guess.
Mm-hmm. But the way this business came about, which is about 10, I guess it’s almost 10 and a half years ago now, it was March 1st, 2015, was even not an idea of, of business, which is. Even crazier. I mean, my skill sets as an entrepreneur for many years certainly have, you know, built the business. Mm-hmm.
But the whole idea and driving factor had nothing to do with it. You know, I had a loved one. That was suffering with four stage lung cancer. Mm. I was, you know, dying very quickly and I was desperately looking for something to slow the progression of that cancer, right? Mm-hmm. at the end of the day, I’m like, look, if we can kick the can down the road a year, two years, whatever, God willing, or some other treatment comes by then, and then, then another, another, and then, you know, someday week cure, who knows?
Mm-hmm. But, you know, to, to sit and watch somebody die in six months was not, part of my game plan and I was just sure something like that existed. I just, you know, I assumed it wasn’t FDA approved. Some kind of, you know. A testing drug that was going on somewhere and mm-hmm. Was available at a Switzerland or Mexico City or something.
So I just glued myself to Google and just started searching right over and over and over, and going down the rabbit holes. You do this leads to that, and that leads to this, but. Interestingly enough, a lot of the early searches were cannabis and I was like, look, I get cannabis for your, for taking care of pain and anxiety and, and increasing your appetite.
You know, that’s been knocked down due to chemo, but I’m looking for something that actually slow the cancer. Mm-hmm. And after a couple months of literally not finding anything at a desperation, I started clicking on some of the canvas. One of the very first things that came up. Wasn’t THC at all. It was C, B, D and specifically for lung cancer.
And there was actually studies, you know, for small cell lung cancer in Israel and Spain and England, and they were quite positive and promising. I’m like, this is insane. How, how come I didn’t click this to begin with? But long story short, you know, you, you, as you begin to, read and research this, this is 2012, you find out, oh well.
That is the number one cannabinoid in, wild cannabis or hemp. Um, It’s, you know, been bred to be higher and higher in THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid. But in nature, CBD is actually the number one. I happen to be in Kansas City, well, this was one of the largest temp growing areas. You know, for centuries, and there’s a lot of quote, you know, ditch weed around here that, you know, fools fools pot, if you will, and I’m like, well, all I need is some of that and I can do a cr concoction and give it to him. And that’s what I did. And you know, to this day, you know, I didn’t have HPLCs and all those types of things at that point in time, so I still don’t know what was there. But what we did see was a enormous change him.
Which wow suited his life for many months. And maybe it would’ve, maybe he’d still be here. Unfortunately, due to the chemo, his own immune system was, you know, non-existent. And he went to the hospital once a month for an MRI, so they could see, hey, all these treatments were giving you, or they working, are these tumors shrinking?
Mm-hmm. Are they holding steady? Are they growing? And they had been shrinking dramatically. And we never did share with him, you know, what he was doing. So they just assumed all the, different, know, things they were giving him, the cocktail was working. And maybe it was, maybe it was a combination, you know, we’ll never know.
But yeah, again, he, the tumors were shrinking rapidly. It looked like, man, we got this, I can’t even believe it. And he went in for an MRI and the very next morning he woke up and had a lot of, you know, like thousands of tiny. Blisters all over his forearm and he called his psychologist and said, Hey, I don’t know if this is something you’re worried about.
I mean, I feel fine, everything, but I’ve got tons of little blisters all over my forearm. And the doctor said immediately, come straight over. Well, they got there and they said, you’ve got a staph infection. They immediately put him in the hospital and put him on antibiotics, but unfortunately, yeah, even though they, they kept him hooked up to antibiotics nonstop.
He died. Roughly a week of sepsis of all things died of a freaking infection, right? Mm-hmm. I mean, heartbreaking. Wow. Right? It’s like, hey, we, it was actually more heartbreaking than if he had just died the nor away, because we actually started having a lot of hope. And then to have it go like that mm-hmm.
It goes so rapidly. But, you know, that, is life, you know, we all deal with mm-hmm. Loss and unfortunately, you know, we had to there, but I, was. Very confident that this product, C, b, D, for all I knew and whatever else was in there. Was mm-hmm. A large part, if not completely responsible for that. And, you know, and I was just like, I have to keep doing this.
I have to really figure this out. And, and that’s what I did. I just, for a couple of years just kind of grounded out and, and really started to figure out the science behind it and, and how it worked. Mm-hmm. And, you know, and making these products. And then there was actually, you know, some. Some laws that were put into place that made it clear that, hey, it’s legal, it’s done under these ways.
So then it opened up a path mm-hmm. Where you could actually sell it. And at the time, I, you know, as I said, I’ve also done entrepreneurial and I had a e-cigarette company made Eliquis and things, and you know, our. Big deal was, you know, hey, back then everything came from China and we’re like, Hey, know what you’re putting in your body?
Yeah. Probably made America CG MP standards, blah, blah, blah. And so that’s where I had the labs and things to, do this kind of research that I was doing. And I had a. Booth that I kept every year at the a SD show, which is a large retail show every year in Las Vegas. Literally anything that retails from a teddy bear to a diamond is there.
And I kept a, a booth right in the convenience store section right next to the smoke shop section. So it was very, you know, perfect traffic for what I did. And I thought, you know, because there’s like a million people that attend this show, and I’m like, this would be a great place to launch. Crossed. I mean, I literally, yeah.
And, and to test the idea, right? Because you said it, no. Yeah, correct, correct. Yeah. We’re, we’re three weeks away from the show. I, nothing, I have no idea, you know, so I, I don’t even have a product idea. So I called my graphic artist and I’m like, Hey, Donna, I want to do this. And then she’s like, what? for this because she’d already been doing art and things and mm-hmm.
Show, and I’m like, yeah. She’s like, we have to make all this product, you know, all these, these banners and table of cloth and flyers and all these things and, and design it, and produce it to, in three weeks. She’s like, well, she needs to come here, like right now. So I do. Mm-hmm. And you know, she, she’s like, well, okay, so explain it to me.
So once I. Do the thumbnail sketch of what it is. It doesn’t get you high. It’s not illegal. This is, you know, it’s a health and wellness product. You know, she’s, okay, well what is it? How’s it look? How’s it feel? And you know, in your mind I’m like, well, it’s all natural. You know, it’s like, you know, it’s plants, it’s earth, it’s buck skin, it’s stone.
You know, I’m just throwing out these random thoughts. And she’s just taking notes and, and then she’s like, well, that’s, what’s the name you? I’m like, you O Donna. Although I’ve been working on this for a few years. I never really formally thought of it as a company until I literally talked about it yesterday and called you.
And she’s like, okay, well what naturally comes to you? And I’m, you know, I kinda look up, I’m like, wow. The only thing that naturally comes to me with the feel of this and everything would be like Medicine Man. And I go, but you know. That word medicine would probably kill us if this works. And she’s like, shakes our head down.
She goes, well, what’s another name for a medicine man? And we’re just sitting across, you know, a desk from each other. We’re both got another name for medicine, another man. And I go, A shaman. She just leans across the table like, I really like that. I, I, she was like, I just, that’s palpable feeling. And I’m like, great.
And so then she goes, well, American Shaman, right? Proudly made in America. I’m like, well, of course. And then I’m like, yeah, but Don, what the hell does American Shaman, what is it? What does that mean? And I’m like, well put CBD in front of it, so at least it is. Of course, nobody knew what CBD was at that time.
So literally in that few minute conversation, CBD American Shaman was born. Boom. And you know, for the first few years there was many times I’m like, man, is that really the right name? Or, but it has obviously served us well and become who we are. So it was I guess wow to be the stars were in for Shaman to be born.
And, you know, from there it was, it was a, you know, it was a product that we’re bringing to market that nobody even knew what it was or how it worked or, so it was a, an enormous educational lift. And that’s mostly with the public. And with vendors and then with local law enforcement and counties and cities and states and lobbying efforts and all that, this has become, it.
It just, you know, I look back over it and when you lose something day to day, you don’t realize how probable amount of work you put into something, but it is, somehow, some way it, it’s worked. Right. I’m, I’m one of about six people. That initially founded the Hep round table, that had the idea to try and put federal law in place and we wrote the, the farm bill that passed in 2018 and repealed roughly 90 years of prohibition of the cannabis plant with six, just six guys out.
It hard to even believe right when, when Trump signed that in late 2018. It was like truly a, a chill your arms and back were just, you know, goosebumps. Like yeah, just, you know, you’ve always heard about this and in school and how a bill is made, this and that, but I’d never even dreamed of doing something like this and visiting it with senators and congressmen and explaining all this and Wow.
You know, what a story. It’s hard to, no, I mean, when I sit here right now, It just to have this overwhelming sense of, you know, divine intervention or something. It’s like, you know mm-hmm. I just don’t think that this little group, this hardy little group of, of band of pimp guys could have done this.
Right. I mean, it just doesn’t seem realistic, so who knows? Yeah. But, but here we are, you know, we, we’ve. Once the, 18, you know, farm Bill was signed, and when we entered 19, the hit market exploded. With it being illegal, it just went crazy. Uh, There was a lot of people sitting on the sidelines that were just waiting, and so it got very competitive.
You know, you kinda had to race to the bottom. Everybody’s like, well, I’ll just sell my product cheaper and push everybody out, which, you know mm-hmm. Wasn’t really realistic, but it was, you know, the thinking and, and so it was. Luckily we had a brand and we could hold our, our pricing at least to a certain extent and keep our profitability.
And then we, after going through that drastic market shake up, entered into COVID, which was, you know, how do you plan for a pandemic especially with brick and mortar stores and, and any, which were in venues that, you know, you could even be open. So it it, it lots of twists and turns and. You know, we, we came up very early on.
We’re like, wait a minute, we’re, we’re perfectly set up to make sanitizing products, hand sanitizers and, you know, room type sanitizers. We made hypochlorous acid, which is electrolysis salt water, which will kill any bacteria, you know, or virus on earth in, in two parts per million. It’s really potent.
It’s amazing, but you could drink it. Mm-hmm. So we made lot, God knows how many, tens of thousands of gallons of that sold it to lots of hospitals and grocery stores and convenience stores and all over, I mean, sold it to Amazon. They didn’t sell it. I mean, they literally used it in their warehouses and nascar and I mean, we, Coca-Cola, we sold to everybody.
But so that was a huge savior, both for the company. Wow. For the stores, guess what? Where you could get sanitizer suddenly became a necessary business and they could stay open. So it was Wow. Kind of double sided. We got our, yeah, we had the profitability from sanitizer. We helped the world with, you know, with these products and our stores got to stay open.
So it was mm-hmm. You know, again, you know, kind of a stars in alignment. Divine intervention being light on our feet and able to pivot. And I’m almost notice. And that got us through COVID and. Then the hemp industry kind of started to wake up again. But there was, you know, still a lot of product over production of 19.
And, you know, you kind of whittled that down and over a couple of years and lots and lots of these little people finally went out of business and shrunk down. And, and you know, now it’s a fairly tight industry. As far as companies. There’s not nearly so many. And the, you know, it’s still very competitive, but the price is not quite as bad.
Mm-hmm. And you know, but that’s it. But, but due to that, But looking at other plants like, okay, we did great with this, but we’re, we don’t have to be a one trick pony. What else is, what other health and wellness products are out there? Yeah, yeah. Plants are full of alkaloids and there’s all kinds of different medicinal properties, so we just kind of started reading lots of research papers and looking at ethno botanicals from all over the world that have been used for centuries with time in memorium and, and then you.
Kind of get an idea this, this might do that, or that might have these properties and okay, well what’s the active And figuring out how, how to extract it and how to make that into a product that’s deliverable to a consumer that actually mm-hmm. Effective, efficacious. And it’s our realm of education that we learn so well with hemp.
We just have to educate you about. Freedom or Kana or blue, you know, all these other plants. So, and as you see all those, they all fit under the the American Shaman brand, right? Like that do seems like it all, it would all fit. Right? ’cause it’s all kind of the same mission. That is absolutely right. So again, back to divine intervention, shaman absolutely is perfect.
Wow. For what was perfect, but who knew 10 years ago in a hurried conversation that that was gonna be so apropos for what we do. Wow. But, but here it is. Right? What I mean, it’s yeah. It is kind of, you know, what an amazing story of entrepreneurship really. And like you being set up for all these different, it’s it’s interesting as I look at that American Shaman brand and the feather and, and for anybody that’s listening to this, definitely go check it out or even check them out on Instagram too.
Um, But when you look at the overall CBD American Shaman brand and the Feather and everything else, I’m like, and when you’re describing these other, um. their products. It just makes sense. It just makes sense, you know, as you see it. Even have stuff for dogs, I’m saying except for pets. And I’ll tell you what, that is a huge market.
They’re, you know, people love their pets. Absolutely. And I honestly think these products work better on a canine than a human. You know, I may, I can tell you stories. People that their dog is on their last leg at 15 years old, they have to lift them up and down over the bed. They have to carry ’em outside to go to the bathroom, but they can’t bring themselves to lay down and they start giving ’em CBD.
And all of a sudden the dog that really was ready to be laid down is going in and out on its own, is jumping up on the bed. it’s just hard to believe. I mean, it mean these products work great, but I, you can’t take a 90-year-old and give ’em C, b, D and they suddenly start running laps around the nursing home.
It so it, it. You watch it with a canine, it’s just like magic. You’re like, what the, mm-hmm. But it certainly helps the humans, but not to that degree. That one. One thing that I love about that is, especially early on, a lot of people are like, well, you know, how, how do you know that, that it’s just not placebo effect?
It’s not just in your head that, oh yeah, I feel better and my mood is better. Or How do you know it’s really the CBDI go, you know, the best way for me is watching what it does for dogs. They don’t have a placebo in effect. Mm-hmm. They have no idea what was in that chew. You gave them. They just gave a little cookie and suddenly became, you know, suddenly we’re running around and jumping up on the bed again and going in and out.
And you know what? That, you know what else did, so it was, it’s really interesting. But, you know, it works well with horses, cats. We’ve used it on a, on host of, of animals. But, you know, it, this is some, when you’re in areas like that are gray, if you will, it is so difficult to stay on the right side.
With labeling and, you know, not making claims. Yeah. But yet selling a product, it’s very difficult to sell something that I can’t explain to you or I can’t give you an idea of how you properly use it or, yeah. So you’re, you’re constantly in this back and forth battle with the quote powers that be, if, how, how does this work?
And, you know, oftentimes mm-hmm. Unfortunately, you just feel like, wow, I, you know, the F FDA a just doesn’t wanna help people. You know, I mean, you’re like, apparently they’re just big pharma period and you know, I, the longer I’ve been in this, the more that I think that type of thing. Right. I really do.
I mean, 75% of the funding comes from big pharma, so, you know, people, you kind usually follow the money, right. And, you know mm-hmm. Every f fda, a commissioner has either come from big pharma or gone to big pharma after they left. You know, that kind of speaks volumes, but you know, if you’re really trying to help people.
Okay, well here’s, here it is. It’s helping people. Well, that’s anecdotal. Well, okay, but we don’t put it on the market for 10 years while we go through stage one, two, and three. You know, we’re to prove that it works. Spend a hundred million dollars and that’s never gonna happen, right? Mm-hmm. So what an easy way to raise the bar high enough that nobody in a supplement space can clear.
Hmm. And that’s unfortunate ’cause there’s a lot of natural products. That can dramatically change people’s lives for the better. That, you know, if people like the FDA had their way, they, tens of millions of people would be denied and it mm-hmm. It’s sickening, really, you know? But, but here we are.
That’s the world we live in, and that’s the game we’re playing and we have to figure out how to, to work within those rules, but still do what we, we do. Yeah. this has been great having you on the show today. I love the I love the story. I mean the logo.
Shout out to your graphic designer who helped you put this out and uh, and grab this and, and get this vision out of your head. And then also your team. So I know you, you mentioned you had a team, that you’re a partner in the beginning and maybe they’re still there, but either way, like. It obviously took a team effort and even just your story of being able to pivot during the pandemic and like step in for some other vital needs in the country and otherwise, like the divine intervention in this whole story is just so inspiring to me.
Um, If somebody’s listening or watching this and they wanna follow up and they wanna learn more about CBD, American Shaman or, Connect, how do they do that? Well, you know, obviously we have a, a website that is as informative as we could possibly be. CBD american shaman.com. Mm-hmm. But you do have phone numbers on there that you could call to kind of get in more information, a little more in depth.
Or if you happen to live in a city that has American Shaman story, you can go in and, and get educated by, you know, a shaman professional. We take it real serious in our training. You know, if you’re gonna work at a shaman store, we have a two week online course, then a one week here at corporate, and then you go to a corporate store for another week.
So you have a month of training and that these, all of our training courses were put together by researchers and physicians. These are honestly the most in depth training courses on cannabis. You could find I’ve actually offered it to. People in the, the canvas space and the marijuana space. But you know, they’re, that’s, it’s a different business model, different mentality there.
It’s like, bud, don’t you wanna educate people? I just point out the highest PhD that’s, yeah. But I only get it and I see how your entrepreneurial mind works on this one. So and for every listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so you can just go to head right on over and check out CB the American Shaman.
And also the social media too. I checked out the Instagram. Definitely worth looking at. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Vince, man, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks again for coming on the show. My pleasure. Alright, thank you. Take
